Exegesis of the saying of Allah the Exalted: “Indeed, the awliya (close friends of Allah) shall have no fear, nor shall they grieve”

The reader: In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
All praise is due to Allah, Lord of the worlds, and may peace and blessings be upon our Prophet Muhammad, and upon his family and all his Companions.
He said, may Allah have mercy on him: “Chapter on the miracles of the awliya (close friends of Allah) and their virtue. Allah the Exalted said:

⁽⁶²⁾ Unquestionably, [for] the allies of Allah there will be no fear concerning them, nor will they grieve ⁽⁶³⁾ Those who believed and were fearing Allah ⁽⁶⁴⁾ For them are good tidings in the worldly life and in the Hereafter. No change is there in the words of Allah. That is what is the great attainment.

ألا إن أولياء الله لا خوف عليهم ولا هم يحزنون * الذين آمنوا وكانوا يتقون * لهم البشرى في الحياة الدنيا وفي الآخرة لا تبديل لكلمات الله ذلك هو الفوز العظيم

[Yunus 10:62-64]

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The Shaykh : In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful.
The author, may Allah have mercy on him, said in his book *Riyad al-Salihin*: “Chapter on the miracles of the awliya (close friends of Allah) and their virtue”. Then the author introduced this chapter with this verse: . It has been mentioned previously regarding its beginning that Allah the Exalted clarified that His awliya (close friends of Allah) are the believers who fear Him. . The Shaykh al-Islam Ibn Taymiyyah, may Allah have mercy on him, took from this verse a phrase in which he said: “Whoever is a believer who fears Allah, he is a wali (close friend) of Allah”. Allah Mighty and Majestic says that these awliya (close friends of Allah) shall have no fear and shall not grieve. They shall have no fear regarding what is to come in their affairs, and they shall not grieve over what has passed in their affairs, because they understood the meaning of worldly life and did righteous deeds, believed in Allah, and feared Him. They believed in Allah and feared Him, so they became among His awliya (close friends of Allah). Then He said: . The good news means the glad tidings in this worldly life and in the Hereafter. The glad tidings in this worldly life are of various types. One of them is the good vision that a believer sees or that is seen for him, meaning he sees in a dream what pleases him, or one of the righteous people sees for him what pleases him, such as seeing that he is given glad tidings of Paradise, or seeing that one of the people is from the people of Paradise, or something similar. Or he sees it in a good form. The important point is that the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said regarding the good vision that a man sees or that is seen for him: . Another type is that a person is pleased with obedience and rejoices in it, and it becomes the coolness of his eye. If this is the case, it indicates that he is among the awliya (close friends of Allah). The Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him) said: . So if you see from yourself that your chest expands with obedience and constricts with disobedience, this is glad tidings for you that you are among the believing servants of Allah and His awliya (close friends of Allah) who fear Him. For this reason, the Prophet (peace and blessings be upon him and his family) said: . Also among this is that the people of good speak well of him, love him, and mention him with good. So if you see that the people of good love you and speak well of you, this is glad tidings for the person that the people of good speak well of him. There is no value in the praise of the people of evil or their criticism, because they have no measure and their testimony is not accepted by Allah. But the people of good, if you see that they speak well of you, mention you with good, draw near to you, and turn toward you, this is glad tidings from Allah for you. Among the glad tidings in this worldly life is what the servant is given when he leaves the world, where the angels descend upon them: . Also among the glad tidings is that a person is given glad tidings at his death with another glad tiding, and it is said to his soul: “Come out, O pure soul, that was in the pure body. Come out to the mercy of Allah and His pleasure.” So it rejoices and is pleased. Also among this is the glad tidings in the grave, for when a person is asked about his Lord, his religion, and his Prophet, and he answers with the truth, a caller from the sky calls out: “Your servant told the truth. So spread for him from Paradise and dress him from Paradise, and open for him a door to Paradise.” Also among this is the glad tidings on the Day of Gathering, where the angels receive them: and . The important point is that the awliya (close friends of Allah) have glad tidings in this worldly life and in the Hereafter. We ask Allah to make us and you among them. . This means that no one changes the words of Allah. No one changes the words of Allah the Exalted. As for the cosmic words, no one can change them. As for the legislative words, the people of falsehood may distort them, as the Jews and Christians did with their books; they distorted them, changed them, and altered them. But as for the cosmic words, no one changes them. . And Allah grants success.